Center for Child Policy
A Child Maltreatment Think Tank
Intrafamilial Child Torture:
Victim Impact and Professional Intervention
A Free Webinar on September 30, 2022
Presented by Pamela J. Miller, JD, MSW, LISW-S
Pamela Miller is a Senior Policy Analyst with the APSAC Center for Child Policy. She has a background as an attorney-GAL and as a clinical social worker with a focus on severe CM. She also serves as an expert witness in litigation related to child maltreatment. In her work with APSAC she is leading a multi-year project on Intrafamilial Child Torture.
In her psychotherapy practice Pamela treated young survivors of intrafamilial child torture (ICT) on a specialized foster care team. She studied with Dr. Judith Cohen to become certified in TF-CBT, studied with Dr. Bessel van der Kolk to become certified in Body-Based Trauma Treatment, and trained with Dr. Bruce Perry in the Neurosequential Model. Pamela is also trained in Theraplay, PCIT/CARE, Child Centered Play Therapy and Attachment-Based Play Therapy. She has won multiple awards as a board member and Regional Director of the National Association of Social Workers Ohio.
In October 2021, Pamela attended oral arguments before the Supreme Court of Ohio as attorney for amicus APSAC. The case involved a young child that died as a result of ICT. She also authored several resources on ICT in the past year, including policy reports, amicus briefs, lectures, and a web article on the interplay of coercive control and Intrafamilial Child Torture, co-authored with Lisa Aronson Fontes, which now has over 1.6 thousand downloads. Pamela’s papers and trainings have been accessed by professionals from 75 countries within the 12 months.
This training will discuss the impact of Intrafamilial Child Torture on child survivors, and the comprehensive interventions needed from multiple disciplines, including mental health, child welfare, medical, and spiritual interventions.
Exploring the impact of ICT on child survivors, this training turns to the science on severely maltreated children as well as clinical experience treating ICT survivors to identify the sequelae typically seen in these children, particularly psychosocial and psycho-developmental harms. Specific psychosocial treatment recommendations are offered, including evidence-based models that are already in use for severely maltreated children and have been used with the ICT population. Victim impact and needed interventions are also identified for child welfare, medical care, and spiritual/religious care. Spiritual care may be vital when the torture was religiously motivated. A call for research is made to develop a separate evidence base for interventions with ICT child survivors.
Participants will have access to the newest paper- Intrafamilial Child Torture: Victim Impact and Professional Intervention- as well as two new case studies, highlighting the various sequelae and treatment outcomes from actual child survivors.
Objectives include:
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Participants will be able to describe at least 3 psychosocial sequelae of ICT
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Participants will be able to describe at least 3 recommended treatments for the psychosocial sequelae of ICT
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Participants will be able to briefly describe the need for child welfare, medical, and spiritual interventions for ICT child survivors
